Church Ruins
by melodramatic cliches
Summary: After running into a nauseating scene, Clare goes off on her own, only to become lost in old ruins. Can she find her way back or will something deadly happen to her? ECLARE.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Degrassi.**

She was trying to be careful as she was attempting to find her way out of the thick and humid forest, the trees closing in on her, making her heart beat faster, drumming against her ribs in a horrible rhythm that made her only feel even more unsafe in the dark and closeted woods.

"I need to get out of here." She murmured to herself, hoping that murmuring those somewhat soothing words would actually make her disperse from the thick woods, but that was fail seeing as she only got more lost.

She had pulled her phone out, she had tried to call someone - anyone, but Jake and Alli, after what she had seen at the campfire, both of them lone at the campfire, their arms woven around each other, their lips sustaining the kiss with much enthusiasm.

.

.

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"_Jake.. Alli?" _

"_Oh Clare! We can explai-"_

"_Explain what? That you two are sneaking around?""Clare, just calm down and let Alli ex-"_

"_Shut it, Jake, I don't wanna hear your petty excuses, neither do I wanna hear Alli's. I'm done - with both of you, for good. This is the last time I get hurt by you two."_

"_Clare!"_

"_Clare-Bear! Please come back!"_

_._

_._

_._

"_Wow, Martin and Bhandari. I didn't see that one coming."_

"_Your sarcasm is as heavy as the air, Bianca." _

"_Chill, Edwards. Didn't mean to get under your skin." _

"_Yeah, you and every other person at this party." _

"_Listen, just forget those two and come back to the cabin party with me, we can have a couple drinks, maybe you can dance with Eli - make Jake feel like douche, it's always a great feeling to make a ex feel like dirt." _

"_I'm not up for games, Bianca. So no thanks."_

"_Whatever Edwards, you are so.. Wait where are you heading?"_

"_Away from the atmosphere."_

"_Ed-Clare! Get back here before something attacks you in those woods! Are you clinically insane?" _

_._

_._

_._

She had gotten too lost in the woods, got engulfed with anger and sadness that he couldn't control her frantic brain, she couldn't stop her feet and turn around back to the party, she knew people would worry, she knew that Bianca had probably told some people - or not, for all she knew Bianca was making out with some drunk in a sloppy matter.

As she pulled out her phone, she quickly unlocked it and scrolled down her contacts, her finger laying on Bianca's number - Bianca was her only hope at the moment, she didn't have no one else to speak to nowadays and of course like typical Bianca, she didn't answer her phone, leaving her with a phone pressed to her ear hearing Bianca's voicemail.

"'_Sup, couldn't get to the phone so ya know what to do. Later." _

She had hung up the phone angrily, frustration rushing through her veins, she could feel her pale cheeks grow hot by her easy anger - she had hoped this party would make her feel better in a emotional state, but it hadn't, it only made her feel even more.. Depressed.

She hated calling herself depressed, but there was no word she could use to describe her heavy and thick sadness that clouded her brain on a daily basis.

But as she was mid thought, she felt her foot get tangled with a root and before she could grab onto a tree to support her, she fell backwards, her phone flying from her hand and cracking against a rather large and tough cement block.

But the louder crack was the sound of her head colliding with one of the various cement blocks scattered around the old ruins of a church, but before she could even remember the familiarity of the old church ruins, she was out in a flash as a sting of pain shot rapidly in her head.

.

.

.

He hated parties, in fact, he absolutely loathed them with every fiber in his being. He hated the atmosphere, the strong smell of alcohol burned his nose or the heavy drags the smokers were taking from their cigarettes or blunts, they would blow their smoke his way knowing it annoyed him to no end.

He had no idea what compelled him to allow Fiona, Adam and Imogen to drag him to this party, usually whenever he said no, his friends would back off, they knew he was easily angry and agitated and didn't want to be the ones tampering with it, but all three of them had basically dragged him kicking and screaming at them and here he was - bored out of his mind while sitting on the old rugged couch.

As he brought his thrashed copy of _Invisible Monsters _up to his face to read, he soon felt a jolt as the book was plucked from his hands, as soon as he smelt the whiff of strong Victoria's Secret perfume and champagne hit his nostrils, he sighed heavily, rolling his eyes as he knew exactly who plucked his book from his hands.

"Fiona." He grumbled as he felt the couch shift, he looked to his left to see that a slightly swaying Fiona was sitting on the couch next to him as she sifted through his torn and bent pages, turning the book upside down as she giggled madly.

"Wow.. Its so funny to read upside down." Fiona said with a goofy grin as she pulled the book closer to her face - making her blue eyes go cross eyed at the simple gesture.

"Yeah.. Enough of messing around with my _only _copy of this book." He said as he snatched the book from Fiona's champagne stained hands and set it beside himself, far from her ever so reaching hands.

"Oh well, what do we have here, Eli Goldsworthy?" Imogen said delightfully as she seated herself right between Fiona and himself, her hair placed in two high pigtails, many rings resting on her fingers, she even had matched her socks which was a first for Imogen considering she was so into mixing and matching, well more mixing.

"Oh hello there darling! How are you on this lovely atomic night?" Fiona slurred as she placed her arm around Imogen sloppily, placing a very wet kiss on Imogen's cheeks, making the brunette's cheeks flame with intensity of the moment, but she soon composed herself as she gently pushed her girlfriend off of her.

"Fi.. Dear, how much did you have to drink?" Imogen asked seriously as she placed her hands on Fiona's shoulders, looking at her square in the eye.

Fiona looked at Imogen in a daze and then placed her frazzled eyes on him, a goofy grin spreading across her soft skin as she snickered.

"Juss' a little bit, baby." Fiona said happily as she found herself caught in a giggle fit with a few snorts, Imogen sighed heavily as she stood up abruptly and hoisted Fiona up alongside her, which was a bit difficult seeing Fiona's current state.

"Okay now, you've had too much to drink missy. I'm driving us back home." Imogen said as she laced her fingers with Fiona's and started leading her to the door.

"Oh, but Imo! We forgot to say goodbye to mister Elijah! Oh Eli!" Fiona squealed as she quickly rushed over to him and hugged him from behind, her grip unusually tight as she squeezed the living daylights out of the usually dark boy.

"..Can't..breathe..Fiona..Please..Stop.." He choked out, soon her grip was removed from him as he groaned and looked behind to see Imogen dragging away Fiona, she mouthed sorry before leaving quickly.

Fiona and Imogen becoming a couple was something that did not surprise him, he knew that Imogen didn't put a label on herself, that she's into everyone, she's into people. So seeing the romance blossom between his two best friends was something he enjoyed watching, what he did not enjoy watching was watching Imogen and Adam's relationship crumble, they had been going strong for many months of the summer, but the fizzle of the relationship had died down and they had mutually ended it, leaving Adam upset and him to help him back to his feet.

As he rose from the couch, he grasped his book in his hand, looking around for Adam seeing as that would be his only friend at this cabin party, half of the people here he didn't even know, they were all dancing crazily, grinding on each other as if it depended on their life.

He sighed and contemplated going home, home where he would sit through another horrible episode of Glee with Cece - which was better than this in his opinion.

But as he was itching towards the half open door, he soon felt a tough tug on his leather jacket clad arm, he turned around confused and was even more so when he saw no other than Bianca in front of him, holding her phone tightly in her arm as she looked at him with urgency in her eyes. "Eli, can you help me?" Bianca asked, almost desperately it seemed. What could she ever need help with, she was miss independent, always doing this her way and on her own.

"Uhm.. Sure." He said as he dragged out the words, Bianca breathed out relieved as she looked at him softly.

"Its about Clare." Bianca confessed.

Never had he felt his blood go as cold as they did in that second, those three words Bianca had spoken was making his blood leave his face and stay ice cold frozen. This was why she looked so urgent and desperate, this was why she had asked him for help, this was why she was sending him a sympathetic glance at this moment.

It was because of Clare.

"What happened? Is she alright? Bianca, please tell me." He pleaded and Bianca pursed her lips as she scrolled through her bedazzled phone, she soon held out the device to him, showing him the highlighted words,

_**One Missed Call from Clare Edwards at 10:53 pm.**_

"She called me and I didn't answer, I was too busy dealing with Drew and Katie and when I went to check my phone, I saw this, but that's not the worst part. I was with Clare earlier when we had caught Jake and Alli." Bianca said and soon he groaned, he had feeling something was going on between Jake and Alli, he had hoped Clare wouldn't find out her best friend was smacking on her ex boyfriend and soon to be brother, but looks like she already had.

"Oh great." He muttered as he stuffed his hands in his jacket pocket and pursed his lips together angrily as he visualized how Clare's face looked when she saw the two of them, what made him even more angrier was that he had seen Jake and Alli walk in not even ten minutes ago, all over each other as if Clare didn't even exist.

"Yeah, but.. Then she wandered off into the woods. I didn't go after her because I thought she'd come back after blowing off some steam, but Eli, it's 11:19 right now, she hasn't came back and I had driven her here so she didn't drive off on her own. She's still out there in the woods." Bianca said gently.

Bianca had only said it as gently as she could muster because of the look the black clad boy had made before bolting to the door without saying a word to Bianca as she rushed after him, feeling the cold air smack their faces as they headed into the dark woods, wasting no time pulling their phones out as lights and calling out Clare's name.

.

.

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"_Clare!"_

"_Clare!"_

"_Have you seen anything yet?""No, lets just split up, you take that section and I'll take this one okay, Bianca?""I'm alright with that. Call me if you find her.""Same." _

"Dammit, Clare. Why did you have to wander into the freakin' woods." He muttered as he used his light to guide his way through the congested woods, but as he was trying to see his surroundings, he felt the toe of his boot knock on something hard, he shined his light on what seemed to be a cement block.

Baffled, he continued to shine the light on more cement blocks, seeing them filled with dirt and numerous bugs were resting on their flat and cold surface, but as he got closer he realized where he was exactly.

He was at the old church ruins.

The same ruins he had found with Clare, that all seemed so long ago. Clare sitting in the passenger seat of Morty, munching on the sandwich which had belonged to him, but she was so hungry he had let her eat his lunch that afternoon, they had driven for what seemed like forever until they came upon this place.

It was broken and was abandoned in every since of the word, they had seemed to adopt it, making it a usual hangout spot for the two, always resting against the cool cement blocks or on Morty's hood, they had even loaned their baby to Adam to use as a party to woo Fiona, which had of course failed miserably, but it wasn't such a bad night for the two of them, they had fallen asleep in a hammock underneath the stars. The perfect night. The perfect atmosphere. The perfect couple.

Of course that was in the past, that had all happened in the cold brisk February days, now it was the hot and sticky August days, nothing like the cool and nip winter days that warmed their old relationship.

Before he could stop himself from shining his light on more concrete blocks, he shined too far ahead and shone it on a broken cell phone. He slowly picked the broken device up, but before he could even ponder on who's it would be, he knew just by the blue phone case.

It was Clare's.

A horrible feeling began to churn in his stomach, Clare was out her somewhere and her broken phone was laying on a concrete blocks and this old church ruin was covered with blocks - all of which were incredibly dangerous to be around, he had remembered countless times of catching Clare whenever she's be her clumsy self and trip over the huge blocks, but this time he wasn't here, what if she had tripped? What if she was seriously injured and this whole time had been..

"Oh my God." He barely whispered as he shone the light directly on Clare's face, it was extremely pale, drained from all blood in her face, her eyes were closed and her mouth was as well, but her face was scrunched up in pain and he soon realized what pain she was feeling once he saw the pool of blood pouring from the back of her auburn hair and was stained on the concrete block which had served as a friend as well as a enemy as it was supporting her head and had stopped anymore blood bleeding out from her head.

He immediately dropped to his knees and looked in Clare in shock, he couldn't seem to find his tongue and call out her name or shake her, he had remembered Katie once saying how if a person is seriously injured to never touch them when Adam had been shot and she was advising everyone to be supportive from a distance, but how could he be supportive from a distance when it was Clare.

"B-B-Bianca!" He screamed as he continued to stare at Clare with tears already welling up in his eyes at seeing her current state, he quickly fumbled around in his jacket pocket, throwing his book to the side as he grabbed his phone and dialed 911 as quickly as he could.

The paramedics were told to be here as soon as they could, but seeing as they were in the woods and out in the countryside, it would take a while longer, but he was told not to touch Clare's head whatsoever seeing as it was a brain injury in the making, but if she did awaken that he was allowed to at least hold her hand and murmur comforting words.

Which he did even though she wasn't awake."Oh God, Clare. You'll be alright - you'll be fine, you'll be well cared for and you'll-you'll never have to deal with this again and you have no idea how much I wanna be in your shoes at the moment, even though you are unconscious, I don't want you in pain. Just… please. Don't leave m- everyone, don't." He stammered through his tears as they cascaded down his face as sobs began to break through his ribcage and he finally showed emotion.

The sound of crunching leaves and quick footsteps filled his eardrums and soon he heard a yelp behind him, he already knew by the sound of her run that it was Bianca who was behind him.

"Clare!" Bianca shouted as she kneeled next to him and went out to touch her face, but quickly he swatted her hand away at her almost gesture, glaring at her from the side of his green pupil.

"Don't touch her. I call 911 and they said she had a brain injury and not to touch her from the neck up, but she's bleeding from her brain, Bianca, oh my God." He choked out as he felt himself shake with more violent sobs, Bianca didn't respond to him, he had heard her let out small whimpers of her own and her hand overlapped his as they held onto Clare's hand, all awaiting for the ambulance.

But before the ambulance had arrived, he had felt Clare shift underneath his hand and he looked over at her face with his mouth opened to say something, but he couldn't find his tongue as he saw her partially open her eyes.

"Eli.. Bianca?" She had croaked out and Bianca had nodded quickly.

"You're hurt, Clare, but don't worry, an ambulance is on their way. You'll be fine." Bianca reassured the small and bleeding girl, but she groaned as she slightly shifted her head, causing more blood to spurt from the back of her wound, the sound it making as it hit's the earth leaving a sickening sound that Bianca began to loathe.

"I'm gonna be sick." Bianca muttered as she scurried off, he could faintly hear the sound of someone throwing up in the distance, but his full attention was on her and how her breathing was becoming shortened as she stared off at one of the many trees around them."Remember.. When me and you.. We-we had found this place on our urban adventure." She began to say before she winced and the sickening sound was being heard once more, making shivers rush down his spine. "Yeah, I remember. I've always remembered." He whispered as he gently squeezed her hand, she slightly looked over at him as best as she could muster before she lightly licked her lips and whispered,

"Kiss me."

He had stared down at her in bewilderment, her wanting his kisses was something he didn't find odd when they were together, but now it had solid months since they had last kissed, he knew this would only end badly, but he didn't wanna refuse her weak statement either.

So he had leaned forward, he had gently pressed his lips to her, their lips creating a type of weak frenzy between themselves, a kiss that had heated the whole moment and brought back up the resurfaced feelings they had felt the first moment they had met.

But when he had pulled away from her, it had been a toxic kiss.

But when Bianca had returned back, she wasn't responding to Bianca's words, nor his.

But when the ambulance came, she had no heartbeat, she wasn't breathing.

But when the party had came to a abrupt stop and everyone had been informed of the terrible news, there wasn't a dry eye in the room, except for his.

But when it was days, months, years, decades later and he was standing alone on her grave, he would then cry.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: This is a bit outrageous, but its what I came up with, based loosely off the Nowhere To Run promo which aired after Dead and Gone part 2 a couple months ago. (: Please review!**


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